Blake Potthoff, executive director of the Fairmont Opera House, sits in front of one of many memories the Opera House has created. Potthoff wants to continue making and giving people memories through the Opera House.

FAIRMONT — The Fairmont Opera House has been around for 120 years and has dealt with difficulties during this pandemic. Executive Director Blake Potthoff described himself as a competitive person who strives to be better and during this pandemic, he has found the light at the end of the tunnel and kept a positive attitude.

The idea of the Fairmont Opera House began in 1989 when Frank A. Day, founder of the Fairmont Sentinel began nudging businessmen to build an opera house. The concept lead to local businessmen forming the Fairmont Opera House Company in March of 1901 and begin construction of this building in 1901 for approximately $20,000. On opening night in 1902, the Opera House opened to the public and 400 tickets were sold for $5.

Potthoff grew up in Martin County. He graduated from Martin County West High School in Sherburn in 2010. He then went to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where he majored in Vocal Performance Opera and minored in Religion. After graduation he worked for the University of Minnesota Extension in Jackson County, KRISMA Counseling working with kids with emotional and behavioral disorders in school and at home and for the Fairmont radio station learning sales.

When it came to the Opera House, Potthoff received a Facebook message in January 2016 from a board member needing help to carry and lift stuff for a performance. That night Potthoff was hired as a stage manager by then executive director Jonas Nissen. In June 2016, he was then promoted to technical director which entailed working with contracts and all of the performers had their needs met. In August of 2016, Potthoff replaced Nissen as Interim Executive Director until that December where he became the Executive Director.

The shutdowns have been hard on the Opera House. When COVID came around the last performance scheduled in the Spring of 2020 was March 13th in Luther College with their concert band. That morning at 8 a.m. Potthoff found out that they weren’t coming due to COVID. Potthoff described himself as a people person and said he didn’t know how to respond to COVID.

“I had three years of every other weekend having family and friends here and hugging people and shaking hands,” Potthoff said. “Getting to share all of these experiences with people and laugh, cry and make memories together all got taken away with no timeline of when it comes back.”

It was really hard on Potthoff professionally. As a chair of the Minnesota Presenters Network, he represents 50 organizations around the state and 160 artists and agencies. Potthoff dealt with a multitude of Zoom calls every day to respond to COVID, got in touch with the Governor, and found out how other states were doing and how other people were responding.

“Those two months were some of the hardest and darkest times I ever had to deal with,” Potthoff said. “However, that doesn’t mean it’s all bad. I had to make a conscious decision about a month and a half into it that just because we were handed a negative situation did not mean we had to handle it negatively.”

After receiving daily emails related to COVID and being terrible, Potthoff stressed that they had to be different and be the bright spot because that was what they were before. The Opera House decided that they were going to entertain people and made sure they wanted to be a bright spot. Examples were doing things in parks and posting silly goofy videos on Facebook.

The shutdowns have forced the Opera House to look at their operations differently, with how they function, their goal of being an excellent small organization, and of being a really great five-star top-tier, large, organization in the next few years. Along with that, he and operations manager Julie Fleming want to be more involved in the community to remind people that they are here, that they’re relevant, and that they’re important.

“I saw a light at the end of the tunnel because I forced myself to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Potthoff said. “We had to make that choice to be different and to be engaged because we couldn’t do what we were good at.”

Potthoff learned that being forced to slow down isn’t a bad thing. Suddenly, Potthoff didn’t have the Opera House to go to and churches were closed too. He, like others, couldn’t see friends or family during that time. Potthoff filled that void by spending time with his wife who is a teacher and had a busy schedule, catching up on television shows, reading, and watching movies.

“To separate work from who we are, it gave us time to reconnect,” Potthoff said. “And I feel that way about my job now too. I stepped away for leave when we had our daughter and I came back and now I get to reorient myself with what this place is, what we mean to the community, and who I am as an executive director and I don’t see those two things as separate. I’m not different at work than I am at home.”

Potthoff shared that when the Opera House fully reopens that it’ll be an emotional trainwreck. He’s sure he’ll get goosebumps, hair on the back of his neck will stand up and he will not take it for granted again. When he performed in Little House on the Prairie last year and got on stage for the first time for a split second he didn’t remember anything.

“It’s just this overwhelming feeling of what we’re doing what we’re supposed to do,” Potthoff said. “We’re giving people an opportunity to forget about the stress in their life and for them to make a memory. That’s really what we have to offer is an experience.

“When we can physically change someone, not just emotionally and mentally, when there’s a physical change because of something they experienced here, how do you put that into words? You can’t help but get emotional over that, that they leave here changed forever.”

Potthoff wanted to let readers and the community know that the Opera House is still here and has seen a lot through 120 years, including two World Wars, Prohibition, the civil rights movement, and the Spanish flu. The Opera House also plans on engaging people in ways they’ve never done, reaching different areas of the community that they haven’t reached before with the help of live stream equipment. Potthoff stated that everybody as a person is here for a reason and that things can be given to someone through connections that are because we’re human and we can’t forget about that.

“Not only are we still here as an organization or as people, but everybody who is going to read this is still here,” Potthoff said. “We haven’t achieved what we’re going to achieve yet.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you have a story about coping with COVID-19 whether you are a restaurant owner, small business owner, or an individual who would like to share your story, contact Sentinel Staff Writer Blake Faith via his email: bfaith@fairmontsentinel.com.